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Show NOT KNOWN. A public dinner occasion at Harvard when Mr. Everett was President of that University immortalized a well-known pun in the toast, "The name of our distinguished President - fame follows where Everett goes." In one case, at least, Everett's name did not follow fast enough to catch up with him. At some festive gathering in New York not long ago one of the speakers told this amusing story of the great scholar and statesman : He was one of the passengers in the loaded stage running out of Concord. When they came to the cross roads, a young lady came out and desired to go. There was no room. Having arrived at an age that would make such an offer graceful and proper, he offered to take her on his knee. She thanked him and accepted. They converged during the trip, and when he neared his destination he thought he would astonish he fair burden by letting her know what distinguished beau had sustained her. He told her a modestly as he could that he was Mr. Everett - Edward Everett. "Uh!" said the sweet creature, "you be! Be you one of them men from Salem?" She had never heard his name! It was the last time during life that he tried to impress a stranger by announcing his name. This ignorance of the eminent men - especially literary men - illustrating the proverb about the "prophet in his own country," is laughably common. Going to visit Longfellow the other day a friend inquired of a Cambridge cab-driver where the poet lived. "What, Longfellow the grocer?" "No, Longfellow the poet." "I dunno nothin' about him." |